circus for one
oil on galvanized steel, 2025
We can trace history through the eyes of the modern clown. Over the centuries, the idea or persona of the clown has evolved, but what has remained consistent is that a clown is:
“....Someone who demonstrates a hodgepodge of bundled senselessness by wanting to step through doors marked ‘danger,’ peering curiously into gun barrels, or eating candles out of hunger. Through such gestures, the clown translagresses the forbidden boundaries of society and thus becomes a mocker of reality. The circus, with its clowns, thus represents a miniaturised model of an entire culture, replete with all its irrationality and irony.”
(See Barloewen, 1984.)
The connection between foolish freedom and revolutionary thought has often been highlighted. The much-belated revolution of May 1968, in particular, spurred our curiosity about festivities and the circus as tools for revolution. La fête was one of the main symbols of freedom—subversive, and a prelude to actual revolutionary struggles—a fight cloaked in darkness and costumes. (See Ozouf, 1976.)
On the other hand, there is a fine line between using la fête or a circus as a means of liberation and employing it as a tool for propaganda. Those in power may orchestrate celebrations as a way to distract the populace from alternative ideologies or religions, thereby maintaining the status quo and reinforcing the existing hierarchy. (See Ozouf, 1976.)
What was once a liberating and revolutionary act can thus become paradoxical and even toxic. Grimaldi created the legend of the sad clown, encapsulated in the following joke about himself:
A young man visits a doctor and complains of
insurmountable depression. The doctor advises
him to see the famous clown Grimaldi to cheer
himself up. The patient responds, “But I am Grimaldi.”